Misremembering, Cricket Shots and Your Personal Narrative

I once caught myself embellishing a story to a friend who would find out what I had done. Not willing to spend the rest of my life telling two separate stories to two separate people and making sure they never met, I fessed up and rolled the story back a bit. Memorably, and forgivingly, my friend said he understood because, 'The narrative demanded it at that point'. It was a kindness. I've tried to hold off exaggeration and dishonesty ever since. One of the reasons is that your lies become your truths over time. You misremember hyperbole as fact. Not the greatest sin in the world, especially for those of us who like to think we can spin a tale, but good to be aware of what you are doing.

I've told a tale from time to time about the greatest cricket shot I ever saw.

For a few years in the summer, aged about 12-14, I went after school to Edgbaston, the Warwickshire County Cricket ground, with a few friends. I was a member but you could also get in cheaply after tea. Watching two hours of cricket was infinitely preferable to history essays and over the years I found many excellent ways to use the time after school and before eating that had nothing to do with homework. I was sitting behind the bat slightly to the left. About fine leg and five or six rows back.

And the way I have told the story I saw England and Surrey opening bat John Edrich hit a ball for six so hard that instead of lofting it a long way over the boundary it went in a straight line.  I can still see the ball going from bat to row C, remaining six feet off the ground the whole journey. I have described this shot as a hook all my life. But if I close my eyes again I can't recall the delivery or the ball hitting bat, just the trajectory of the ball which my young eyes saw clearly.

John Edrich died recently aged 83. The first thing I noticed above the obituary I read in The Guardian was a picture of him playing a shot. He was playing the shot he must have played when I saw that 6. He was a left-handed bat. Left-handed.

So, I was not sitting at fine leg but third man and I did not see a hook. What I saw was more remarkable. As obituarist Peter Mason wrote on Christmas Day, Edrich was '.... a ruthless dispatcher of bad deliveries, using his strong forearms to punch the ball to midwicket or through the covers.' I saw Edrich punch the ball through the covers for six. Imagine Ben Stokes' winning shot at Headingley against Australia after that mega last-wicket partnership with Jack Leach, only played slightly higher and later so going for 6 not 4. Unbelievable. But I saw it with my own eyes. Least, I think I did.

RIP Phil Hughes and some thoughts on his passing

So sad to hear that Australian cricketer Phil Hughes has died following a blow to the head by a cricket ball. A cricket ball travelling at ninety miles an hour is a dangerous thing but the huge advances in protective equipment worn by players makes such occasions incredibly rare. But if you have never cradled a cricket ball in your hand you ought to. It is a very solid projectile. One once broke my ankle. I look down at the scar between the fingers of my right hand where a ball split the webbing. I caught it though.

I have been pretty focused on the Old Testament for the last few months. Morning Prayer lectionary readings took us through 1 and 2 Samuel then 1 and 2 Kings. My church has been studying Exodus and my small home group, Genesis.

Many people observe dramatic differences between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. I observe dramatic differences between the people of the Old and the people of the New (and the people of today). A collection of books (which the Bible is) containing stories spanning two millennia will inevitably show some major cultural change.

The sport of the Middle Bronze Age was war. You tested your strength against the neighbours in a time when land boundaries were being stretched, established and fixed.

What does Goliath say to David? Not much more than 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.'

Saul has killed his thousands
David his tens of thousands

This too is a football chant.

Our leader is better than the King.

The sport of kings is a description often made of hunting pursuits. The Romans fixed combat as a sport by building huge stadia in which people gathered to watch warriors try to kill each other. Combat, jousting and contact team games are all anteceded by warfare.

We have moved on. We (by which I mean society) still like team games and one-on-one competition. Boxing and wrestling are the two where the focus is most on hurting each other but subtle rules make sure the pain is limited and the potential damage minimal. But boxers are maimed and die from time to time.

Rugby has an unbelievable care for rules and opponent. Witness the huddles after games of mutual appreciation. But when the whistle blows there is much made of the 'big hit'. Hugely perfected physiques try very hard to stop each other with extremely violent blocks and tackles. American football is the culmination of this process; guys hit each other much harder than they otherwise would because their own protective clothing becomes not a defensive matter but a shock-absorber which allows them to thud and crunch into each other with greater power, velocity and personal safety.

Football also has its nuances. It is often forgotten that page one of the introduction to the game specifies that football is not a physical contact sport but the nature of the game makes some physical contact inevitable. And we are discovering that brain injuries caused by heading an old water-soaked case-ball were more common than we thought. (See the 'Justice for Jeff' campaign re the West Brom striker who died relatively young, probably as a result of heading footballs too often.)

But cricket is complex. Much is made of the failure of outsiders to understand the rules and subtleties. But when a fast bowler has, in his armoury, the possibility of projecting the ball at great speed at the opponent's head, deliberately, you have to say that this will only serve to intimidate or unnerve the opponent if it carries with it the prospect of serious injury or death. Hard to imagine that players used to face such a barrage without helmets but I am old enough to remember the days.

So, did Phil Hughes die because of a failure of protective equipment? Possibly, and it may be the case that even more protection will be offered. But this will greatly increase the weight of a helmet and may make avoiding the ball harder.

No. Phil Hughes died because part of the game of cricket, and some other games, involves trying to kill each other. It rarely happens but it is a possibility. It is sad but true. I am sure he knew the risk. Combating a dangerous bowler who was trying to maim him was part of the attraction.

I wonder if the bowler will be wanting to try and kill again though? Because if that's not what he's trying to do, why aim at the head?

Cricket as a Foreign Language

Cricket has moved up the batting order of the news and is now opening. But unless we are tuned in to cricket speak what are we to make of this sentence, from PM on Radio 4 this evening?

Investigations by cricket's governing body are continuing into the allegation that the Pakistani team bowled no balls deliberately during the final test match.

Hmm. Throughout England's first innings every delivery was an accident eh?

Bolt Bowling

You thought Usain Bolt was only a runner? Watch this slightly grainy footage of a charity cricket match. Bolt bowling, creamed for six by Chris Gayle and then bowls him next ball. Bolt then requires Gayle to acknowledge his genius as he chases him off the pitch. Brilliant.

Cricket

This is not the space for a cricket commentary or opinion piece. Others will do that far more articulately and with much greater expertise than me. But I played cricket, at a very low level, for a few years. And all I want to say is that you need to have played a game or two to realise just how difficult it is.

The only thing I was any good at was catching. I was a nimble fielder with very good reactions. In one of my last seasons I took a catch at square leg. The ball was hooked and came at me very fast. There is no time to think in such circumstances. Practice and experience tells you the position to get your hands in and how to give a little at the moment of impact to stop the ball bouncing out again.

I took the catch and then noticed that the webbing between the little and ring fingers of my left hand had split. Get your fingers in slightly the wrong position and that ball is very hard and very dangerous. Notice Ricky Ponting doing the post match interview with the scar of a ball's seam across his mouth. It's one of the many details that you only get to know if you play. The ball is hard. It hurts when it hits. It could kill you. It comes fast.

Those 22 guys who have been playing Tests for the last few weeks have had few injuries and have made amazingly few mistakes. In what other sport do you have to concentrate for two hours in case something happens and then have to dive to take a blinding catch? Ask a slip fielder on a flat track how they manage to keep their eyes on every ball.

It was good to watch England win but it was better to see how good those 22 players were at a very difficult sport. Respect.

Six and Out?

Cricket commentators are a breed apart. Go here then click on the audio link. You will find a wonderfully calm account of a ball sailing through the commentary box window (which was closed) and cutting the scorer's arm. He continued to score without comment.

Holy Communion

There used to be a tea towel which had the description of the game of cricket on it:

CRICKET: AS EXPLAINED TO A FOREIGNER...
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

You may remember this. Well yesterday morning I was listening to a sermon about Holy Communion which began with a topical illustration about the passion we all felt for cricket and rather than listening I started trying to write an explanation of Holy Communion for a tea towel. It is work in progress but so far:

The church comes into the church to commemorate the death of someone who is still alive. The one who is still alive isn't there and a person stands up and invites everyone who is already there to come into the presence of the one who was dead and is alive and isn't there.

On a table is a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. But the bread isn't bread it is the body of the one who isn't there and the wine isn't wine but the blood of the one who isn't there. But they are still bread and still wine and still look and taste like bread and wine even when the person who said come into the presence of the one who was dead but is alive and isn't there says they are now blood and body.

The bread is food but not for those who are hungry. The wine is drink but not for those who are thirsty. The hungry and thirsty should eat and drink before they arrive.

The bread needs to be broken in order to work. If it isn't broken it won't work. The person who breaks the bread says, 'We break this bread to share in the body of the one who was dead' but this is not cannibalism or violence.

Everyone is invited to share in the bread but some churches won't let go of the cup to let this happen. Although the bread and wine are the most important bits of this ritual the cups and plates are treated as more valuable. Some churches use funny bread which sticks to your dentures.

When everyone has eaten and drunk a little bit they go in peace to love and serve the Lord. They do this by drinking coffee and talking about each other.

Some people like to eat bread and drink wine to remember the dead one every day. Some only do it on special occasions. Some still don't remember the dead one however often they do it. Others never do it but don't forget the dead one. This is not because wine makes you forget.